Phylogeography of the land snail Albinaria hippolyti (Pulmonata : Clausiliidae) from Crete, inferred from ITS-1 sequences
Abstract
The polytypic Cretan land snail Albinaria hippolyti has a range that is partly fragmented and partly subdivided by hybrid zones. For this reason, it has served as a model species for investigating speciation and radiation in Mediterranean Clausiliidae. The first internal transcribed spacer (ITS-1) of the nuclear ribosomal DNA was sequenced in 20 populations of A. hippolyti and phylogenetically analysed using maximum parsimony. We employed a novel method involving logarithmic weighting of gaps and topological constraints based on bootstrap values. The resulting phylogeography suggests that the species has undergone a recent cycle of range expansion and range reduction. Speciation cannot be linked to major geological vicariance events in the Miocene and Pliocene, as has been suggested previously. The subspecies A. h. arthuriana appears unrelated to other A.
hippolyti subspecies, which supports recent suggestions, based on morphology, to regard it as a separate species. (C) 2004 The Linnean Society of London.
